“My mother swore up and down that the first word out of my mouth was ‘horse.’ ”
Joanne Milton wonders if that was just her mom’s way of suggesting she was horse crazy, and she also wonders how she could have missed “mama” and “dad.”
But there is no doubt whatsoever, about Milton’s love of horses. Her home just south of Hillsburgh is filled with horse décor, and she collects art – paintings and art works of her own horses. She even has an oil painting of a horse she painted in her teens.
She was born in Engelhart, about 120 miles north of North Bay, which hardly seemed a Mecca for the equine set, “but, almost everybody’s got a horse or a pony out on the back 40. But it’s really not horse country.”
She bought her first horse at 16, and “I really got into it.”
The result was, after high school, taking a two year equine course at Humber College’s Rexdale campus, which she lamented is no longer offered. The buildings are all torn down.
“I ended up working with standardbred race horses,” she said of her first job out of school in her early 20s. A few years later she worked with standardbreds for veterinarian Don Furness, of Rockwood.
“I taught his kids to ride. I did the books, and helped out with the horses at the farm, and at the track when needed.”
That was the late 1980s. Milton had been teaching riding since she was in high school, mainly to her friends, and she noted she took to that calling naturally.
“There’s a lot of teachers in my family. I’m the only one that teaches horse,” she said.
She now operates Rustic Meadows on Trafalgar Road, which has horses and is home to a covey of wild turkeys. One of her yearlings “likes to chase them when they get into her paddock. She likes to see them fly. She runs into a group in a field and goes, “Wow, that was fun’.”
Milton is currently down to just six horses at the 84-acre farm, which she said is unusual for her.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve had a stall for each one. In the summer, there’s usually ten.”
She also keeps some horses at a farm on the Orangeville Road near Fergus, where she provides lessons in the winter. In the summer, she works from Rustic Meadows. She also holds winter horse classes and discussions there for interested people; everything from veterinary talks to bringing in specialists from various horse disciplines.
She has been teaching riding for over 30 years and breeding reining prospects since 1995. Milton has been a Canadian Equestrian Federation Level 1 western riding coach since 1996. She received her judge and instructor certification from the World Sidesaddle Federation Inc. in 2000, becoming the first Canadian to achieve that certification.
She said sidesaddle teaching is what is really making her well known in the horse world. Over the first decades of her involvement, she was spread thin, something common in the equine world.
“There are 150 breeds and 150 disciplines,” she said by way of explanation. She knew a few people in many disciplines, but not a lot in any one of them. She learned sidesaddle almost by accident.
“I had a chance to try it once, in college,” she remembered. “I’ve always thought it was interesting.”
But that was the extent of her involvement – then.
Years later, she was demonstrating reining on her horse, Cricket, in Milton at the Agricultural Museum and Deb Smith, of Pickering was demonstrating the art of sidesaddle in preparation for the Royal Winter Fair.
Smith was hoping to get her two horses prepared for the crowds at the Royal. But, one of the two horses was unable to handle the crowds in Milton and could not work at the Royal. Smith’s second horse came up lame, leaving her wondering what to do.
“I was walking past [and heard Smith lamenting her problems]. I said, teach me to ride sidesaddle and you can use Cricket all you want.”
It was a deal. Smith came to Rustic Meadows and in five minutes, Milton was mastering sidesaddle riding.
“Two weeks later, we took Cricket to the Royal and did three demonstrations a day for seven days,” she said.
It was the start of a friendship for Smith and Milton, and the start of Milton’s love of sidesaddle riding – and teaching it. She had one horse whose first ever jump was accomplished with a student in the saddle.
She likens riding sidesaddle to perching on the corner of a desk, but warns would-be riders that the good sidesaddles are counterbalanced, and the saddle “has to fit you and the horse. Don’t pull grandma’s sidesaddle out of the attic and go galloping across the fields. When it’s fitted, it’s very comfortable.”
Another benefit of sidesaddle riding is it’s actually easier on some riders. Milton said when her arthritis is acting up, she can ride a horse astride for about 20 minutes and she pays for that, but she can ride sidesaddle for two hours with little discomfort.
There were drawbacks to the discipline, though.
“A lot of people tend to think that sidesaddle is dangerous because a lot of women did get killed,” she explained.
Women who wanted to ride 100 years ago had only the option of sidesaddle because it was not considered ladylike to ride astride. In the old fox hunts in Great Britain, many women “rode to hounds,” with all that entailed, including jumping fences, gates and rock piles. Any slips off the saddle in those circumstances could have deadly consequences, although many women were as good as (and maybe better) their male counterparts. Men dressed to ride; women dressed differently to be able to ride.
Milton said of the accidental deaths from dragging, “It was not because of the side saddle, but yards of cloth in the dress got caught on the horn. That’s what killed them.”
Which leads to another facet of Milton’s horse career. She sews. In fact, she sews horse costumes. Her current “work in progress” is a costume she uses for sidesaddle demonstrations. It is huge, with over 22 metres of cloth in it.
“It’s not historically correct,” she said. “I don’t want to get killed. So, I make them open.”
That means if she suffers a fall, the entire costume comes apart. Her sewing motto is, “Velcro is a wonderful thing.” It beats being dragged.
She sews mainly in the winter, and does not limit herself to just costumes for riders, but also sews reins and bridles and does decorative work on horse gear.
“I learned to sew as a kid. My home economics teacher would be turning over in her grave because of my big, horsey stitches.”
She said she was always nervous and a doctor told her when she was 17 she needed to do something with her hands. That doctor’s suggestion: “Take up smoking.” She ignored that advice.
Instead, she took up needle and thread, something she already had experience with, and is pleased with her choice. She learned crafts that help with her horse decoration sewing: macramé, knitting, crocheting, cross stitching and fancy stitching.
“A lot of that I do on the machine,” she said.
But, with all the lessons and demonstrations she is involved in, she is forced to limit sewing to the winter, usually from “January to March and that’s it. I don’t know how on earth I found time for a full-time job.”
Her lesson schedule at Rustic Meadows is very flexible and the teaching is custom tailored to each individual student. Milton specializes in beginner riders, teaching the “balanced seat,” and its variations. Students are taught the basic riding positions and learn to understand the mechanics behind all reining maneuvers.
She likes to expose newcomers to many available disciplines in the horse industry, so they may make their own choices about which they would like to pursue. Once students begins to specialize, she will help them find a coach in their chosen field, unless of course, they choose reining or sidesaddle.
Some of her former and current students are competing very successfully in reining, dressage, hunter/jumper, western games, western pleasure and trail. She does not push competition though, and many students are just enjoying their contact with horses.
Horses from the Rustic Meadows Breeding Program are being enjoyed by their new owners and are beginning to make their mark in the show pen.
She also does custom sewing, specializing in custom western show shirts and jackets.
For information, visit www.rusticmeadows.com or call 519-855-6865.
